Taking ‘Questão de Confusão’ to the masses

29 Sep 201804:42am IST

29 Sep 201804:42am IST

Konkani film‘Questão de Confusão’was recently premiered in Goa, with the promise to reach out to the audiences in the interiors of Goa. Café speaks to the film’s producer, Suchita Narvekar, about her plans on fulfilling this challenging task

If you have watched the trailer of ‘Questao de

Confusao’ and wondered when or where you
will get the opportunity to watch the film, you’ll be delighted to know that
there are ample of options you can choose from. The film’s producer, Suchita
Narvekar, who is also a noted theatre actor and radio jockey,has plans to take
the film to the people. The film is about two next door neighbours in a
village, who are in an ongoing family fuel, that has been on for over five
generations. These families, the Costas and the Gaonkars, include grandparents,
parents and now the young sons.

The cast includes Rajdeep Naik, Anil
Pednekar, Gauri Kamat, Sharad Sakhardande, Anil Raikar, Reshama Naik, Antonette
D’Souza, Spirit and Bunty, as well as child artistes Ethan D’Souza and Chetanya
Sujay Naik. Tiatr actor Anthony San and Loutolim based artiste Pupul will be
doing guest appearances. The story, concept and characters are by Suchita and
the screenplay is by Swapnil Shetkar, Sai Panandikar and Ankit Kenny. The film
is presented by Chetana Productions, Go Goa Gollywood, produced by Suchita and
directed by Swapnil.

On September 29, 2018 (today), the film
will be screened at Ravindra Bhavan, Sanquelim at 7:30pm and on September 30 at
Ravindra Bhavan, Margao at 7:30pm. On October 4, Siddhivinayak Temple in Parra
will be the venue for the screening at 7:30pm. It will then be screened on
October 8 at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao and October 13, at Kala Academy, Panjim at
10:30am and Rajiv Kala Mandir, Ponda at 7:30pm. Tickets will be available at
the venue.

Suchita is a noted name in the world of
Konkani and Marathi theatre in Goa and was awarded the best actress award at
the Konkani Film Festival in 2005 for her role in ‘Katyantle Ful’. She is a
part of the Kala Chetana theatre groupfor more than 20 years and has written
seven plays, which were performed with over 100 shows. “We used to dream that
one day we will make our own film. I had a story idea in mind and when I told
the team about the theme, they loved it; the process for making it started in
3-4 months. Swapnil Shetkar and Ankit Kenny wrote the screenplay and Sai
Panandikar wrote the dialogues. This was followed by auditions for the actors,”
informs Suchita.

Though the film’s star cast includes experienced actors, they
still had to audition for their parts.

Speaking about her journey, Suchita says, “After 2005 (the year
she won the award), I stopped my film career as I took on the job of a radio
jockey for ten years. Otherwise, acting was my main dream. There was no role
that suited me. Just because I am producing a film, doesn’t mean I could
interfere in the various departments. You have to give a free hand and every
department has their own responsibilities. Finally, it is the movie that has to
be best when all these pieces come together,” she explains.

How is writing for a film different from writing for theatre?
Suchita explains: “I wrote the story. For theatre, it is one stage where you
show every everything that is happening within the acts, the dialogues have to
narrate what is going on in the background and stage. In the film, instead of
saying the dialogues, you can actually shoot the scenes; the dialogues were
less as compared to the action. Since I am more of a dialogue oriented person,
I had to work on controlling that urge and start writing again. I enjoyed that
experience.”

The total process of the film took 14 months. The shooting began
on September 23, 2018 and on that very date, a year later, the film had its
premiere at Kala Academy. “Shooting was done at Calvim, Mayem and Chorao. Our
recce process included finding houses that had entrances that were exactly
opposite each other. We searched everywhere in Goa for these houses, finally
finding them in Calvim. We renovated the houses as our art director, Satish
Gaonkar, had envisioned it.”

This is the first time she is taking on the role of film
producer. “The artistes and direction team have specific jobs to do. It is
challenging to be the producer as I then come in the picture where we have to
take the film to the people. We have spent nearly Rs 1 crore and in order to
even think about any future projects, we have to first recover that money. Our
main focus now is on marketing, social media activities and taking the film to
the villages. When the film was been shot, we went to different villages to see
if they have halls or acoustic facilities to screen the film,” she says.

The
film received a great response for its premiere. “People who had only seen the
trailer approached us in the UK to screen the film in four venues in November.
We are still in talks with people based in Dubai and the USA. We asked them to
watch the movie first but they were happy with trailer itself. However, we
convinced them to send someone to catch a show in Goa and give them an unbiased
feedback before booking the shows abroad,” concludes Suchita, with optimism.